The State Department has promised to cease requirement of “psychological” tests that compel employees to answer “true” or “false” to such assertions as “Christ performed miracles.” Questions on the divinity of Christ and theological concepts pertaining to Christianity were posed in deciding suitability of personnel for overseas assignment.
Responding to protests from Congress, the State Department today wrote Rep. Cornelius Gallagher, New Jersey Democrat, that “effective immediately, we have discontinued this policy.” Rep. Gallagher, chairman of a Government Operations Subcommittee had warned the Department he planned a special investigation into its “insidious and Illegal search of the human mind.”
Today he lauded the State Department’s decision but noted that some other Federal agencies are now using similar tests for selecting personnel. Among the agencies, he said, are the Departments of Defense and Labor, the Export-Import Bank, and the Peace Corps. In Rep. Gallagher’s view, probing questions on religion are not appropriate for a government agency to impose upon personnel. Civil service requirements forbid direct inquiry into the religious faith of applicants. But the tests elicit considerable information on the individual’s personal religious views.
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